Warsaw at this time was an ethnically diverse city of some 250,000 inhabitants, and the administrative capital of "Congress Poland", a semi-detached state of the Russian Empire.

His name suggests that the family may have been members of the city's German-speaking minority, but there are references to Lydia having spoken German, Russian, Polish, English and Italian.

Under his guidance she studied the relevant literature and undertook an eight month research tour of northern Italy, Switzerland and France.

This auto-didactic approach to study and the acquisition of knowledge more broadly was not untypical among well informed young women impatient to learn more, at a time when university attendance was, in almost every case, accessible only to males.

More broadly the reports triggered outrage among readers of mass-circulation newspapers who had previously been able to avoid awareness of the extreme outcomes to which such cases might lead.

It seems likely that her younger sister Sophie, who according to at least one source had married the ambitious young university professor of psychology, Sigmund Fuchs (1859-1903) in 1896, was already living in the city.

High hopes accompanied the launch of the association, and by the time Lydia von Wolfring resigned from the executive committee in 1901 important progress had been made.

[11] Implicitly, she seems to have taken the view that some of those calling the shots at the "Kinder-Schutz- und Rettungsgesellschaft" were excessively accepting about the status quo, and she began to gather friends around her in order to set up a new organisation.

The "Pestalozziverein zur Förderung des Kinderschutzes und der Jugendfürsorge in Wien" ("Vienna Pestalozzi Association for the promotion of child protection and youth welfare") was launched in 1903.

Residential care for abused and neglected children again became the priority, but expansion seems to have been driven by need rather than by criteria based on affordability: finding the funds for the organisation's activities was a constant struggle.

For as long as her health held out, von Wolfring was tireless in her fundraising efforts, while also pursuing her researches into the causes of social alienation affecting children.

[1][4] She continued to write articles and deliver lectures detailing the changes that were necessary in order to address society's pressing need for structured child protection.

Towards the end of her time in Vienna it is known that she suffered a health breakdown and was required to undergo a major operation which failed to deliver a cure for her condition.